LEGISLATION WOULD CREATE NEW CONSERVATION FUNDING

Bipartisan legislation was reintroduced Dec. 14 in the U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C., by Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI) that would dedicate $1.3 billion in funding to help states address the needs for thousands of fish and wildlife species in trouble across America.

Patterned after the Conservation and Reinvestment Act of 2000, which narrowly failed to clear Congress, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act(H.R. 4647) proposes to provide assured and sufficient funding to states to proactively conserve imperiled species identified in State Wildlife Action Plans.

It is being championed by the Blue Ribbon Panel on Sustaining America’s Diverse Fish & Wildlife Resources, a think-tank of 26 energy, business and conservation leaders assembled in 2014 by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, which serves North America’s state and provincial wildlife management agencies.

If approved, the Act’s new funding model would dedicate $1.3 billion annually, out of more than $10 billion in revenues from traditional and renewable energy development and mineral development on federal lands and waters, toward fish and wildlife conservation.

Pennsylvania currently receives about $1.5 million in federal State Wildlife Grant funds annually to manage the state’s 664 fish and wildlife species of greatest conservation need and their associated habitats. Under the proposal, Pennsylvania would receive a guaranteed annual federal fish and wildlife conservation payout of about $34 million to better address the outlined conservation actions for these species. Every Pennsylvanian benefits when we have healthy and accessible fish and wildlife.